Summer Getaway (17) — Wrapping Up the Event
THE SOW
A single grill sat in the middle of the table, ringed by cylindrical stools with storage for clothes underneath — the classic layout of a Korean barbecue joint.
"Wooooooo!!!"
"Meat meat meat!!!"
Fresh off collecting their prize money, they had rushed through showers and a change of clothes. The second they sat down, the chanting started. They had already flashed the gift certificates on the way in, so the food began arriving on its own.
"Eight servings of flower samgyeopsal."
Pork belly rolled into neat little blossoms came out. Score marks ran along the surface in tidy ridges; just looking at it made your mouth water.
Sizzle.
It hit the grill and filled the air with an unseasonable rain-like hiss.
"Huh? Is it raining?"
Iseul peered toward the window with an exaggerated flourish.
"Yah! Hahaha!"
Jia cracked up at the performance. Everyone was in high spirits.
"Khaaaaah… this is it…"
"Mom, can I eat now?"
"Baek Iseul! You just ate a little while ago!"
Even though she had polished off ramen and kimbap only a few hours earlier, hunger was already gnawing at her again; she looked ready to snatch meat that was still half-raw. Baek Jiwoo only snorted a laugh. Kids that age got hungry the second you turned your back.
"Aigoo, just hold on a second."
She had meant to take the meal at a leisurely pace, but with a table full of starving little birds she piled the grill high. Years of restaurant work showed in her hands — the pork belly lined up in neat ranks and files, looking almost too good to eat.
"All right! Dig in!!!"
"Then I'll help myself—!"
Clang!!!
Iseul's chopsticks shot toward the meat and bounced right off. A dumb little sound slipped out of her.
"Uweh?"
"We're only eating like this thanks to Jia's dad. Wait a little."
"Hiiing… fine. Papang♡ Eat lots!"
It was a little much, but the warm, almost family-like atmosphere made Hanbyul smile as he picked up a piece of meat.
"Wow…! This is actually amazing…"
The pork was good on its own, but something about the care put into it made it taste extraordinary — easily one of the best cuts he had ever had.
"Dad. Your acting was seriously good, though."
Jia was still glowing over the image of her father on stage, something she had never seen before in her life. She was completely convinced it had been the real thing.
"Mm… y-yeah…? Thanks, sweetie~"
He offered an awkward smile — and his eyes met Iseul's.
"Khhff~♡"
Knowing it was a secret just between the two of them, she looked quietly smug. Of course, that expression didn't last long…
"Ah, right. Iseul! Take that makeup off!"
"Aww, whyyy… just for todayyy~"
"Since when do you even wear makeup this heavy!!!"
Mid-meal, she got a smack across the back. Jiwoo had thought the makeup looked a little thick; apparently Iseul had gone completely overboard.
What's with Jia being so quiet?
This was usually the moment she would jump in, but she was oddly still. When Jiwoo looked straight across the table, her daughter was shyly focused on her meat alone. A minute ago she had been eating like a woman possessed; maybe putting out that first fire had finally let her come back to her senses. She glanced around and deliberately slowed her pace.
"Eut…"
She felt Hanbyul's gaze on her — chin propped in his hand, watching — and her face flooded red in an instant. Jia set down her chopsticks and looked at her dad.
"Hm? Why'd you stop eating?"
"Ahem. Dad… how was today?"
He knew exactly what she was asking about, so he tried to dodge.
"Mm… i-it was fine…"
Jia knew that too, and pressed again.
"Not 'fine.' Good or bad — pick one..!"
Her voice climbed a little, sharp with insistence, and Hanbyul, cornered, answered honestly.
"I… I liked it… haha?"
"Heheheh♡ He liked it. He liked being married to me♡"
Her face split into a grin like a Hahoe mask.
"Hihihihi♡ Dad~♡"
She called him in a sticky-sweet voice, then made a little drinking gesture with her hand.
"We're on a rare trip and something fun happened — can we have just one drink?"
With that bright, easy smile turned on him, who could say no? Hanbyul, who couldn't hold his liquor, simply nodded.
"Oh yeah~ Iseul, let's drink!"
"Ooooh, yes! You need drinks for a mood like this!"
Iseul, who until moments ago had been wrestling with her mother's chest, immediately put in the order. Behind them, Jiwoo shook her head with a long-suffering sigh, as if she had already lost the fight…
Three red-capped bottles arrived and were set in front of everyone but Hanbyul.
"Drink however you like. We don't do formalities here~"
Jiwoo drank with Iseul often enough that she told them to go at their own pace. Still, they all wet their lips on the first round together.
"Khaa~♡"
"That's the stuff!"
"Augh, cuts right through the grease."
One person at the table could not for the life of him understand the appeal.
I-is this actually supposed to taste good…?
One drink became two, two became half a bottle…
A faint pink flush rose on the married woman's cheeks; the two young ones, by contrast, looked completely fine.
"Hmm~♡ One more!"
"Auntie~!!! Two more of the red ones over here!!!"
Buoyed by the alcohol, they chattered away for a long stretch. Then, as if taking a short break, they focused on eating or slipped off to the restroom — and in that lull:
"Hanbyul-ah, eat this.."
Jiwoo wrapped a ssam and held it out toward his mouth.
"Aaah~♡"
"Th-thanks. Noona."
The moment he closed his lips around it—
Mm?
Something completely foreign to a ssam pressed against his tongue.
"Khhff♡ Were you trying to eat my fingers?"
She had slipped the wrap away and left her fingers in its place, leaving Hanbyul in the thoroughly indecent position of sucking on Jiwoo's fingers.
"Khhff♡"
Without meaning to, he kept working at them. Noona had turned her body sideways toward him, which pushed her chest together; even after changing clothes, the neckline was deep enough that her pink bra showed through…
For a split second the urge to nurse at her breasts hit him, and that was probably why his mouth had closed around her fingers without thinking.
"Chuuup…♡"
Flustered, he carefully pulled back — only for a lewd little sound to stretch between her fingertip and his lips in a long, glistening thread. It thinned, then finally broke, a strand of spit trailing after her finger.
"Churp♡"
Jiwoo brought her own finger to her mouth and licked it clean.
"Heunghff♡"
The sultry way she sucked on it was too much. He choked.
"Cough cough!!!"
It went down the wrong way. He grabbed for a cup of water — except it wasn't water. It was soju.
"Ghhk? Th-this is alcohol..!"
"Huh? Dad drank? You get drunk off a single glass…"
Jia's eyes went round. She stood up from her seat, fretting over her father. Until now she had mostly shown him the side of herself that wanted to devour him whole; seeing her worry like this, she really did feel like a warm, caring daughter.
Haah♡ If I play this right…?
Or maybe not.
Whether the alcohol had already hit him or not, the buzz rose at the same time as a wave of heat, and Hanbyul's excitement climbed right along with it. His daughter's face started to blur into his wife Jiwoo's.
"Uuung~ Jiwoo-ya..♡"
He pulled the standing Jia into a hug and nuzzled his face against her stomach.
"Khhff♡"
Being held under the impression that she was her mother stung a little — but getting her dad's clingy affection and love was enough that Jia stayed quiet and let it happen.
"Jiwoo-yaaa.. I missed you..♡"
Hanbyul was dealing splash damage without even realizing it. From the situation alone it was clear he meant his wife, but Baek Jiwoo was drunk too.
"Heungh! I… I wasn't missing you that much, actually!"
"Hwehng, mean! You're so mean, jagi!"
A bizarre arrangement: verbal conversation with Baek Jiwoo, physical conversation with her daughter Jia.
"Eugh…"
Iseul could only drain her glass, bitterly aware she had no room to squeeze into that particular gap.
Not a single person at the table was functioning normally. And then the last dish arrived.
"Sausages for you, guests."
A proud array of sausages came out — big ones down to small ones, lined up in a row…
"Oh my, what are these?"
Jiwoo picked up one of the thick, ripe-looking links in a deliberately suggestive way and asked the server auntie.
"Ah, those are sausages made from Iberico sow. Our shop's most famous dish~ Hoho."
"Ah~"
Mouth parted in a lewd little O, she stared blankly at the sausage that looked uncannily like a certain something else.
Sizzle.
The sausages cooked on the grill. Every last person at the table was looking at them and thinking of the exact same thing.
"They're done..?"
In the middle of that charged atmosphere, Hanbyul announced the meat was ready. As if in answer, Jiwoo picked up a sausage—
"Hiek! H-honey..♡"
—and he covered his precious parts.
"Heung? Jagiya♡"
Watching her trembling, precious dad, Jia brought one to her own mouth.
Crunch.
A rich, meaty sound as she bit halfway through. It was so good she forgot she was teasing him and just savored it.
"N-no.."
"Honey? From now on I want you looking only at me… Or else what do you think will happen?"
She delivered the loaded line and took another deliberate bite.
"Papang!!! Look at me!"
Seizing the moment, Iseul called Hanbyul over — and with a filthy little sound she started sucking on hers like ice cream. The greedy work of her tongue and the look on her face—
"S-stop iiit..♡"
—sent the stimulation straight where it counted.
Last came Jiwoo. She hadn't wanted to join this particular contest, but the moment she saw the prize was Hanbyul's clingy affection, she threw dignity aside and jumped in.
"Hanbyul-ah~?"
"Mm..? N-noona..♡"
"Look at this?"
The mother of a grown daughter mimed tucking a sausage between her breasts, a thick string of spit trailing from her lip. Those ripe, heavy breasts were thrown into full relief, and Hanbyul found himself wishing the food disappearing into Jiwoo's mouth were something of his own.
It had been a thoroughly indecent stretch of time, but dinner wrapped up without any real incident. The daughters, however, had no idea that their parents were about to undertake a rather significant venture of their own.
"Hanbyul-ah? Did you eat well?"
"Hhhff..♡ Yes.."
"Then you can answer what Noona asked you, right?"
"W-what was it..?"
Drunk enough to have completely forgotten — but Jiwoo hadn't.
"Hiiing.. I asked if you were going to have sex with Noona."
"Ah.."
A shy flush rose on his face as he squirmed.
"So what's it going to be? Are you doing it, or not?"
"…"
"Is Noona just supposed to sit here dying of anticipation?"
She slipped a hand between her breasts, breathing hard. At the sight of her, Hanbyul answered not with words, but with action.
"N-noona..♡"
"That's it..♡"